This box and paperwork got posted on facebook the other day. Too bad he didn’t get the gun with it. I have wanted one of those for a long time. Unfortunately I have never seen on with my own eyes in person.

The gun itself came out to offer a heavier load than the average .38Special.

The story is, it was developed for the cops to have something with more power to fight the depression era gangsters and their steel body cars. Colt came up with the Super .38 and Smith came out with the .38-44 Heavy Duty.

Smith & Wesson created the Heavy Duty using a special, thick .38 Special cylinder and the heavy under-lugged barrel from its .44 frame revolver.

It’s said to be a better balanced and pleasant to shoot 6 gun than a .357. The Mag eventually being the death knell for Heavy Duty once it came out. The Heavy Duty continued on for a while as a more economical option for those who wanted more power than the .38 Special but couldn’t afford, or didn’t want to afford, the .357Mag.

One version of the Heavy Duty shown below.